Sr Manager, Product Owner

The Manager, Reservations System & Integrations, is accountable for participating in daily support as well as successful delivery of products and applications supporting the Business Stakeholders under the direction of the department head.  Candidate will need to be highly experienced with the life cycle of software development, system integrations and experienced with high profile external/internal customers, development of highly defined project plans, complex business requirements, functional design documents and general management of development efforts for systems and software packages. 

The successful candidate will develop a productive partnership with technology vendors, business stakeholders, and technical team members. Responsible for producing, grooming, prioritizing, and overall timely management of the requirements backlog as well as assisting developing user acceptance criteria. They will own and assist in training and change management activities of the new applications and business solutions. Require capability to own all aspects of the Reservations Platform, interfaces and business needs and deliver high-energy teams that achieve company-wide goals.

Responsibilities

• Manage and assist in the gathering of requirements for projects by conducting interviews, work flow analysis, process analysis, and interview sessions
• Lead in the process to produce clear and concise workflow documents to drive balanced solutions that consider people, process and technology components
• Evaluate information from multiple sources and help distinguish user requests from user needs
• Interface with all levels of internal clients and analyze current business and software development processes
• Facilitate and clarify customer business needs and translate them into application and operational requirements
• Foster and own Agile principles and methods for requirements gathering.
• Write concise and effective User Stories
• Define precise and accurate User Story acceptance criteria that will be used by developers, business owners and automation test frameworks to ensure the intent is effectively captured.
• Manage and assist in business case development using modeling techniques and methods as needed.
• Manage and assist in the creation of project approval request documentation.
• Manage the collaboration to develop user acceptance testing (UAT) specifications
• Ensure successful user acceptance testing
• Arrange client reviews of software under development, ensuring client satisfaction
• Possess the ability to serve as a Product Owner, Project Manager and Business Analyst in support of the Reservations Platform and all Interfaces.
• Work with the business to ensure business adoption.
• Validate resource requirements.
• Manage training and creation of training manuals.

Basic Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience performing business analysis preferably in the Travel and Cruise arena
• 5+ years of experience working directly with Cruise Reservation Systems (Seaware) and Web Booking Sites.
• Work experience in data analysis a plus
• Strong problem-solving skills
• Strong written and verbal skills and ability to communicate with both technical and non-technical audiences
• Strong partnering skills and ability to work within a collaborative team environment
• Proficient use of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Visio or equivalent
• Strong business process definition capabilities, including the ability to capture process flows visually according to standard methodologies
• Ability to communicate effectively with business stakeholders and to translate business requirements for technical developers
• Responsive to business needs and highly motivated to improve the skills and capabilities of his/her organization
• A strong sense of ownership and responsibility for delivery
• Ability to learn, understand and apply new technologies
• Must be able to work independently, support several projects simultaneously and prioritize effectively

Experience and Knowledge

• 5+ years Travel Industry experience
• Public speaking capabilities.  Ability to do in-person presentation on the reservation platform
• Understanding of the Travel Agent/Trade Industry distribution channels
• Ability to retain and organize large amounts of information
• Essential-working knowledge of Microsoft Office. (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint)
• Enjoy working as a team member as well as independently
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Strong problem-solving and analytical skills
• 4 Year Degree from accredited university or relevant work experience

Required Education

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Marketing, Business or related field or equivalent work experience
• Must have excellent interpersonal and communication skills (verbal and written) to interact with customers, employees, and management.
• Experience in travel industry and strong knowledge of computerized reservations systems is a must